Questions on whether Perth can cope with the potential influx of families of the Malaysia Airlines tragedy. Photo: Louie Douvis

A statement from Malaysia Airlines released on Tuesday morning said "when Malaysia Airlines receives approval from the investigating authorities, arrangements will be made to bring the families to the recovery area".

AHA chief executive Bradley Woods said it had offered assistance to Malaysian Airlines in the coordination of current and future Perth hotel room availability, if required, for family members of the passengers of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.

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The association has also contacted the Office of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Consulate General of the Peoples Republic of China and the Malaysian Consulate General in Perth in regard to the matter.

Mr Woods said “Perth hotels have the capacity to accommodate family members of the passengers of MH370”.

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Perth is the closest city to where the plane is believed to have plunged into the ocean, more than 2000 kilometres out to sea.

There were 239 people aboard the plane. Potentially hundreds of family members could arrive in Perth in the coming days.

“The Australian Hotels Association has assisted in co-ordinating urgent hotel room demand on past occasions and has systems and procedures in place,” Mr Woods said.

In 2012, when the temporary grounding of Qantas fleets stranded a number of people in Perth for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the AHA stepped in to co-ordinate the resolution of accommodation issues faced by about 1000 visitors who were affected.

Since the news that the plane had disappeared from radar, relatives of some of the passengers on the missing Malaysian Airlines flight have been put up in hotels in Kuala Lumpur, where the flight took off from and Beijing, where the flight was supposed to land and where most of the passengers on board were from.

Some of those staying in a hotel in Malaysia recently had to be relocated because of existing bookings for the Ferrari Formula One team.